Gov. Rick Scott announced Monday that BP is sending a $30 million grant to the Northwest Florida Tourism Council (NWFTC) to help lure visitors to that region -- an area hit hard by the Gulf oil spill last year.
You had to know the buzz over Steve Wises bill to discontinue part-time school board members salaries would grow into something akin to a blast from a South African vuvuzela.
The Republican state senator from Jacksonville woke up a number of very-comfortable-thank-you public trough-feeders when he introduced SB 7234.
If the bill passes as is, the state will pay the next crop of school board members $100 per meeting, capped at $2,400 per year, plus travel reimbursement.
Personally, I love it. And I don't know why Florida didn't go this route a long time ago.
Lawmakers are poised to expand the states school voucher programs instituted more than 10 years ago that enable more students to attend private schools.
Under three bills advancing in the Legislature, all of Floridas existing voucher programs would be affected in some way. But unlike when these major school reforms were proposed over 10 years ago, protests have been muted. Some Democrats, who were once ardently opposed to voucher programs, have even begun to support vouchers.
This week lasted a bit longer than most congressional weeks, with both the House and the Senate staying in session late on Friday, April 8. They had to work late to avoid a complete government shutdown of all our departments and agencies due to a lack of funding.
A very similar long work week occurred in December 2010 when Congress passed the same stop-gap appropriations funding bill.
A U.S. government shutdown 2011 was averted at the last minute Friday night after the House and Senate reached a temporary spending agreement.
The measure, which will keep the government running until Thursday, postponed an impending furlough of some 800,000 federal workers.
Friday's "bridge" agreement calls for $39 billion in short-term spending cuts, and pushes off the contentious issue of abortion funding, which Republicans sought to block.
